All posts tagged 2020 Olympics

Fergus Stewart, chief executive of major international hotel operator IHG ANA Hotels Group Japan LLC, sits down with the Wall Street Journal to discuss changing industry dynamics and his company’s strategy at a time when an influx of Asian visitors and a cheap yen are reshaping tourism in Japan. Read More »

Work to demolish Tokyo’s Olympic stadium continued Thursday with heavy machinery ripping down stands where spectators once sat and watched the 1964 Summer Games.

The demolition work to make way for a new 2020 Olympic Games arena finally began in January after a six-month delay over suspicions of bid-rigging and protests from prominent architects and activists over a new design seen as too big and expensive. Read More »

Monday’s national holiday in Japan to celebrate Coming of Age Day also happened to mark 2,020 days left until the opening of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. To commemorate the occasion, Tokyoites who were celebrating turning 20 years old gathered at the metropolitan government’s building and formed a line that read “2020.” Read More »

One of Japan’s most renowned architects denounced Tokyo’s plan to renovate the national Olympic Stadium for the 2020 Games, calling the stadium expensive and so large it would disrupt its surrounding landscape.

Fumihiko Maki leads a group of prominent Japanese architects protesting against plans for the New National Stadium designed by Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid scheduled to be built in time to host the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Read More »

Speculation is already well underway over who will fill Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose’s shoes and resume stalled preparations for the 2020 Olympics after his abrupt resignation over a money scandal.

Several names have already been floated in Japanese media as possible candidates from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, including seven-time Olympian Seiko Hashimoto and nationalist Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura, who is also the minister in charge of the Olympic games. Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara, son of former Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara who was the driving force behind Tokyo’s Olympic bid – is also being seen as potentially running. Read More »

From Olympic glory to allegations of election-fraud ignominy, the governor of Tokyo’s political fortunes have quickly taken a turn for the worse. Just three months after winning an intense battle to stage the 2020 Olympics in the city, Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose is now fighting to save his political career.

At the center of the allegations is a ¥50 million ($490,000) loan Mr. Inose acknowledges receiving from one of Japan’s largest hospital operators. The hospital chain is already involved in a separate election funding scandal. If the loan was intended to fund Mr. Inose’s campaign–an allegation he flatly denies–he could face up to three years in prison for failing to include it in his campaign funding reports, a violation of electoral law. To date, Mr. Inose has not been charged with any offense related to the loan. Read More »

The Japanese government said Thursday that the cartoon—which showed skinny sumo wrestlers with three arms and three legs and carried a caption saying “Marvellous! Thanks to Fukushima sumo-wrestling has become an Olympic discipline”—was disrespectful to the victims of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster. Read More »

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